Grownups
by betawho
Summary: On a world of children, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are the only Grownups. And now the Sheriff has put out an APB on them. He gets a call from a construction site, where the workers have never seen a Grownup before...


On the planet Fayanora, everyone looks 12 years old...

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—

"Janine," Dutch said as he jumped into his Sheriff's SUV and flicked on the microphone, "I need an APB put out on a trio of Grownups."

"We got a problem, boss?" the little girl voice asked back.

"No," Dutch reached down and scratched the military tattoo on his 12 year old forearm, his unlined face was troubled, his smooth child's chin firmed. "There's no problem with them, I just need them located. Put out the bulletin, see if anyone has seen them. They're not at the Grownup's Hostel."

He pulled shut the door to his SUV, looked up at the oversized skyscraper that had been built at the spaceport, supersized lodgings for the occasional Grownup humans who visited the planet.

He pulled out the device he'd found in his daughter's effects at the hospital. As usual, she had no idea how it had gotten there. It was some sort of technological wand, nearly as long as his forearm, with a cushioned grip in the middle and a light with three tines around it at the end.

He studied it again as he waited for reports. It didn't appear to be a weapon, at least not like any he'd seen on any of the banned or restricted lists.

He pulled forward the dashboard computer console and typed in a request with his short child's fingers. He shook his head and scratched his buzz cut hair. His gun poked him in the thigh and he shifted it out from under him.

There were no obvious controls on the wand, he supposed it could be pressure sensitive, but he wasn't going to test out an unfamiliar device without knowing what it could do.

He shoved it back in his pocket. He looked out the Rover's windshield and checked the sun, it was nearly noon. He could get some lunch while he waited for news. He started up his vehicle and pulled out.

—

"Boss," Janine's voice came over the radio. Dutch bolted down his mouthful of hot dog and slapped at the receiver. "We got a match on those Grownups you were looking for. Across from the construction site on Overbrook. The foreman called it in, said they were just sitting across the street watching them, it was making him nervous. I've got him on the line."

"Patch him through." Dutch set aside his chili dog and wiped his mouth hurriedly, straightening his uniform, and snatching the napkin out from under the seatbelt over his chest.

"Sheriff Anderson?" The face on the monitor was a 12 year old boy, sandy hair shading to gray at the temples, and a collection of freckles over a pert nose. The hard hat on his head, and the nametag clipped to his braces identified him as the site foreman.

Dutch nodded politely. "Mr. Campbell. I was told you had a report of three Grownups?" he asked.

Campbell nodded and leaned sideways, as if he was looking out of the window of the prefab office he was calling from. "I can see them right now." He turned nervous eyes back to Dutch.

"Is that really what Grownups look like?" he asked nervously. "They're huge."

Dutch nodded. "They are a bit oversized. The ones you're seeing, can you describe them to me?"

The foreman's eyes snapped back to the sheriff. "Are they dangerous?" he asked instantly.

Dutch frowned and sat up straighter. "Have you been having problems with them?" he asked. Grownups might be a normal form of human, but they had some really strange ideas when it came to people who looked like Feyanorans. "Has there been an incident?"

"No," the foreman looked a bit pale. "They're just sitting over there watching us. It's kind of nerve wracking. And I've never seen a woman who looked like that before. Are you sure she's not malformed or something?" He got a suddenly horrified look on his face. "I don't mean... I didn't mean it as an insult or anything," he said, waving his hands in self defense. "I'm not prejudiced or anything, I just wondered if she had a condition or something."

"What do you mean?" Dutch realized he'd dealt with more Grownups in his capacity as Sheriff than most Feyanorans ever saw. Frankly, he knew most Feyanorans had never seen a Grownup, outside of videos or historical recreations. It was sort of a shock the first time.

"I just... She looks sort of disproportionate," he tried to explain. "Could she have been stung by an insect?"

"What do you mean?" Dutch started his truck, these humans had helped his daughter. If one of them was injured... "Is she acting ill or dizzy?" he asked.

"No, but she's got," he pointed a finger at each side of his chest. "Sort of swollen."

Dutch laughed and relaxed. "I believe that's normal for Grownup females."

"Really?" the foreman asked, with a dubious look on his face.

"Yes, really. Some hormonal function we don't have anymore," Dutch explained.

The foreman heaved out a sigh of relief, his freckled face regaining its color. "That's okay then. Look, could you come see what you could do about them. I've already had one beam dropped nearly on someone's foot because everyone was craning to get a look at them. And it's unsettling to have a bunch of giants watching us work."

Dutch nodded and flipped on his lights. "I'll run by and see if I can chivvy them along."

The foreman nodded. "Thanks." The screen went blank.

"And then I can return his gizmo to him," Dutch muttered to himself as he shoved his lunch into the recycle container at the parking lot exit and pulled out into traffic.

"Although how I'm going to explain my daughter, the kleptomaniac, stole it from him in the first place, I don't know."

—

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If you enjoyed this story, you may enjoy the story it ties into, "Youth is Wasted on the Young."

You can find "Youth is Wasted on the Young" in the stories list by clicking "betawho" above.


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